Another story. I hope some more folks share.
At the SSA convention a few years ago I was catching up with my friend and fellow glider restorer Walter Cannon. He asked what I was working on. I told him that a couple of juniors and I were restoring 1-26 serial number 2 so it could go to IVSM later in the summer.
Walter sort of gulped and I saw a tear in his eye. Ha asked if it was N91894. It is. He told me that back in 1954 he was learning to fly gliders at the Schweizer Soaring School, 002 was the first single seat glider he got to fly. It turns out he was the first young person to fly it.
Fast forward to the 2016 IVSM. Walter was there flying one of his ships. We decided that he really needed to fly 002 again. He did and came back with a big smile. We got some good photos.
We have asked a lot of folks and have not found anyone that can claim to have flown the same glider 62 years apart.
If we are lucky maybe he will be able to make it 66 years this summer.
Special ship - Special guy.
More stories- we need some smiles.
UH

It's interesting what we remember. My father got into soaring around 1960. Within a few years, he and a partner bought an inactive 1-23B out of a barn in Maine and painted it, put in new instruments, etc. He loved that glider and flew it for several years, eventually getting his Gold Distance/Diamond Goal in it in Ohio. The registration number was N91880, 14 numbers before 1-26 002. My understanding is that Schweizer had blocks of N numbers that they assigned as they built gliders so I'll occasionally see one on a 1-23 or 1-26 that I recognize from "the old days".

The 1-23B was a long-wing, thinner-skin one-off built, IIRC, for the World Championships in Spain in 1952. I recall the N91880 number because in those days, not everyone had a contest # and my dad used the last three digits of the registration #, 880, as his competition ID. It wasn't until around 1965 or 1966 that he acquired "JB" when John Baird generously offered it to him. I sort of took over JB when I started flying our 201 Libelle in 1970 and have been campaigning it ever since. I occasionally wonder who will end up with it when I stand down.

Unlike contest #s, registration #s usually stay with the glider. Not always, though: N707JB first appeared on my father's Diamant, then we moved it to the Libelle in 1970 along with JB, then transferred both #s to our LS-3 in 1978. I transferred both, again, to the ASW 24 that I've been flying since 1992.

Chip Bearden
JB